Youth

Guest author Jim Swimm, in his third post for us, writes “I’ve taken on this crusade to fight for LGBT youth because I was personally affected by one young man's senseless, tragic death but, frankly, it’s not mine to fight”.

In late September of 2010, while walking my dog with a friend along the banks of the Harlem River in Manhattan's Inwood Hill Park, my life was changed forever. In a shocking moment right out of 'Law and Order', I came upon a dead body floating face-down in the water. That experience alone was quite traumatic, without a doubt. But little did I know just how traumatic and life-altering it would turn out to be.
You see, that lifeless body in the water turned out to be young Tyler Clementi, th

John McCullagh learns about Totally Outright, a sexual health leadership course that empowers young gay guys to become effective leaders in their own communities.

Totally Outright is a thought-provoking, leadership and community-building program for young gay men. It’s designed to introduce them to community leaders, mentors and experts in gay men’s health. It’s about building a community of well informed, sexually-savvy young men who can communicate with a wide range of people to enhance gay community health.
The program was created by the Community Based Research Centre (CBRC) in British Columbia and then further developed and delivered by Heal

Denise Becker "When I first found out I had HIV, I wanted to read as much as possible on the subject. I was reading mostly about children because I was more concerned with my baby, who had just been diagnosed with AIDS."

I was given several small books, which I still have to this day and I keep them as a reminder of what was going on then for children versus the improvements in North America now.
Upon reading books, I found that I quickly had to stop because reading about the possible infections was extremely frightening and the thought of Katie getting any of them was just sickening. Among those listed were blindness and possible club hands and feet. At that time, when a baby got HIV and ha

The ghost of Ryan White. When a school denies admission to a 13-year old for having HIV, how can they possibly justify it? It’s 2011, after all. This is how. (Hear what Anderson Cooper has to say too.)

The case has received a lot of attention. It’s unbelievable. But in case you haven’t been following, here are the facts, as per Reuters. A private boarding school connected with the Hershey chocolate company says it was trying to protect other students when it denied admission to a Philadelphia-area teenager because he is HIV-positive.
The AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit on behalf of the unidentified boy in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia on Wednesday, cla

At the recent Ontario HIV Treatment Network research conference, John McCullagh spoke to researcher Josephine Wong about the vulnerabilities to HIV and other STIs of street-involved young men in Toronto.

Although Canada’s a rich country, homelessness is a reality for far too many of our fellow citizens. A significant proportion of them are young people. In addition, there are many youth who, if not technically homeless, experience precarious living situations. There are many reasons for this - poverty, family rejection, domestic violence, parental drug and/or alcohol misuse or a lack of space where young people feel they can be themselves.
These circumstances make these so-called street-inv

Inspired by Rick Mercer’s rant about the importance of gay and lesbian public figures to be open about their sexual orientation, John McCullagh has a rant of his own about the need for all queer adults to support our youth.

Did you see Rick Mercer’s latest rant? If not, play the video clip of it that you’ll find at the end of this article.
He’s saying that telling queer teens to just put up with the bullying at school and elsewhere because “it just gets better” when they eventually reach adulthood doesn’t cut it. He tells gay and lesbian public figures to be open about their sexual orientation so that they can be role models for queer youth. “If you’re gay and you’re in public life...you can’t

Zachary Quinto has finally come out as a gay man, but is it too little too late? And what is it about his coming out story that has the Tattoed Activist so riled up? Be sure to read the controversial post and contribute to the discussion by commenting.

In an interview with New York Magazine actor Zachary Quinto publicly acknowledged his homosexuality for the first time by slipping into the conversation four, no doubt preplanned words; “as a gay man…” Quinto had previously danced around the subject in the press, most notably in the New York Times stating “I’ve come to realize through experience that ultimately I really do have a lot of power in terms of the way I relate to the public or to people outside of my intimate circle of

Like most of you, the first time I heard of Matthew Shepard I was watching the news back in the fall of 1998...

Like most of you, the first time I heard of Matthew Shepard I was watching the news back in the fall of 1998 and heard of this horrible story of a college student who was tortured and left for dead in Laramie, Wyoming. He was attacked on October 7th, but died from his injuries on October 12th while in the hospital. Unfortunately, being from the south...this was not an uncommon story to hear, especially if the victim was gay. And with all the stories about serial killers like Jeffrey Dahmer o

The Youth present were amazing too, sex positive, and queer friendly, inquisitive and outgoing; they cleared me out of safer sex supplies....

On November 18th I hosted a kiosk promoting the AIDS Committee of Ottawa and our group for young gay positive men called Chatter during the 6th Annual Rainbow Youth Fair at the Confederation Learning Centre. This year’s theme was ‘Passion, Pride, and Prosperity’.
Youth Service Bureau (YSB) organized over 200 students from surrounding schools to attend, with the help of some amazing teachers from the city of Ottawa, and hosted some amazing workshops created and given by Youth for Youth, a

Jer's Vision: Canada's Youth Diversity Initiative (www.jersvision.org) has selected me to be their Visionary of the Week. An award selected by Jer's Vision Board Members, their Youth Committee, and by their participants and volunteers

Jer's Vision: Canada's Youth Diversity Initiative (www.jersvision.org) has selected me to be their Visionary of the Week. An award selected by Jer's Vision Board Members, their Youth Committee, and by their participants and volunteers. Given to people who are trying to make the world a better place, Jer’s Vision is seeking to motivate community involvement from readers of their new blog (www.jersvision.blogspot.com) and annual newsletter. Below is my full interview with Jer’s Vision’s Ca